Blue and Long Tailed Tits were out today.

 Dinah Beautiful Blue... 

Dinah and the beautiful blue
In the fields
They will sing for hours
Dinah and the beautiful blue
Letting through
All the hidden powers
Dinah and the beautiful blue
With the force
Of a million lifetimes
Dinah to the beautiful blue
Bring me love
Make me smile again

(Song by Anywhen).

The beautiful yellow waistcoat of this bird magically matches the yellow lichen on the stems of the viburnum shrub in which it pauses, ready to return to the freshly stocked bird feeder situated just a few meters away.

Long tail, 'Does What it says on the tin'

Peach / Apricot highlight over the eye.

Bank Vole ( I think due to the chestnut colour)  was doing a little house keeping in one of the habitat stacks. 

And the fox skulked by on the far side of the meadow, while I was tucked away inside the pop up hide...

Let's just call this post 'Jack Frost visits Longbeach Farm!'

 Out with the camera around Longbeach Farm today. Very cold, but extremely pretty. 

Click Images for option to zoom into detailed (larger) pictures.

The House and pond from the North side.

 The frozen pond surface looking like a solid sheet of brushed aluminum.

View across the bottom pool facing East.

Partial view across the pond.

Weeping Birch by the pond.

Ash seeds with a frosty coating.

There are bullrushes outside my window
And their leaves whisper words in the breeze
Well tomorrow I'll walk to the harbour
And catch the first boat that's coming in

(Paul Weller)

Norfolk Reed.

Frozen Pussy Willow stems.

Pendulous Sedge.

West view from below the bund towards the house.

Frozen Handrail on the bridge over the Haha. 

View North from the Wildflower Meadow Gate.

Wild carrot Seed head.

Views east towards the Chicken and Goose Pen.

Well there just had to be a Robin!

Great Tit was a welcome visitor, nothing else showed up to face the camera. 

Bee and Insect Hotel from unwanted invasive Tree

 

I discovered this Tree of Heaven at Longbeach farm about two years ago, it is planted alongside a run of Ash Trees, I strongly suspect that it was planted by mistake about 40 years ago by the previous owners of LBF. Well, contrary to its name, the 'Tree of Heaven' is a bit of a nightmare if left unchecked and can become invasive; the tree sends out root runners that then appear from underground, meters away from the parent. They then start to crowd out other trees and vegetation. Apparently it can use its own form of chemical warfare; sending out chemical signals that inhibits the grown of other plants. The sap is also problematic and has been linked (anecdotally) to causing breathing problems when cutting them down with chainsaws.  Well we can't have that, so I cut slashes into the trunk and poured in Glyphosate (weed killer) while being masked up and wearing protective goggles just incase. I did not suffer any ill effects from my chain sawing activities!  I made the cuts in autumn just as the tree was pulling all its sap and resources down into its root system in readiness for winter hibernation, this was to ensure that the Glyphosate was taken down into the invasie spreading root system. - I don't like using herbicides, but sometimes you have to break eggs if you want to make an omelet and my research indicated that there is only one practical way to deal with the problem. Glyphosate quickly becomes inert in the environment, so seemed like a safe choice to use in a controlled and limited way.  Simply cutting tree down with no other intervention would have only made the tree send out more suckers, potentially causing a bigger problem, besides, rather than just cutting the tree down, standing dead trees are valuable habitat for birds, bats, insects etc, so I decided to leave the tree standing and hasten its demise by also drilling holes and chainsaw plunge cuts into the trunk to act as hibernation locations for a range of insects. I'm particularly keen to see if solitary Mason Bees will take up residence and use the drilled holes as cavities to lay their eggs.  The tree is next to the pond so there is plenty of mud for the bees to use to plug up each nest cell.  The bees should fill up the drilled holes with pollen and nectar, their egg and then a cap of mud, they repeat this process until the hole is full to the outer edge of the trunk; there may be as many as 6 to 8 bees in each drilled hole each having its own capsule to live in until its time to dig themselves out.  Apparently they coordinate their excavation activity so they all emerge in a timely coordinated way. Hopefully I can capture them filling the holes and then film the new bees emerging as they dig their way out late inight the year. 

Goldcrest - Regulus regulus and Goldfinch - Carduelis carduelis

Frosty but bright day... 

While feeding the chickens, ducks and geese this morning, I noticed a gang of longtail tits  at the edge of the coppice, so decided to head inside to grab my camera.  By the time I got back, the tits were nowhere to be seen. I decided to go 'walk about' on my little patch to see what else was about. I was rewarded with seeing the elusive goldcrest I had spotted out of the bathroom window earlier in the month.  This time I had my camera to hand... the photos are far from great and it was difficult to get close enough to get a clear shot. These quick snaps; act as a record of the sighting and confirmation that we have this pretty little bird at Long Beach farm. With more planning and a healthy dose of good luck, I hope I have the opportunity to get some better pictures.

This sky high Goldfinch was kind enough to drop in at the top of one of the oaks.  These images are heavily cropped and so lack sharpness, I feel I may need to save up to get a bigger lens for my Nikon!

The reedmace were also in good form and are now shedding their seeds, I suspect the Finches have been at these!

Winter enhancements...

This weekend I decided to make use of some of the logs I cut last year; hopefully the new structure will create a nice 'habitat stack' for the newts, frogs etc. while also providing several kingfisher perches. Once the vegetation  grows back in spring, the stack should blend into the pond margins and create even more cover for a variety of creatures.

It's a dirty job but someone has to do it... Several hours spent today digging up reedmace in a bid to limit it taking over the shallow margin and drawdown area at the bottom of the pond nearest the house. Any reedmace that crosses the new boundary edge strips this year will get the chop!